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CATECHISM 



OF THE 



SOQAL QUESTION 



By Key. John A. Ryan, D.D. 

and 

Rev. R. A. McGo'wan 

NATIONAL CATHOLIC WELFARE COUNCIL 
SOCIAL ACTION DEPARTMENT 




NEW YORK 

THE PAULIST PRESS 

I20 WEST 6oth STREET 



mibil ©batat: 



Imprimatur: 



ARTHUR J. SCANLAN, S.T.D. 
Censor Librorum 



* PATRICK J. HAYES, D. D. 
Archbishop of Ne'w York 



New York, March 2nd, ig2i. 



JUL -6 1921 



Copyright 1921. The Missionary Society of St. Paul the Apostle 
in the State of New York. 



©C(.A617660 



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HOW BEST TO USE THE CATECHISM 

Justice and charity demand that Catholics interest 
themselves in the solution of the labor problem. This 
requires knowledge. The Catechism of the Social Ques- 
tion furnishes an introduction to the knowledge re- 
quired. 

Further information and thought are necessary, how- 
ever, and the best way to use the Catechism for that 
purpose is for groups of people to study it together. 
Such groups need not be large. A few willing people 
are enough. They can meet once a week, but they 
should be interested enough to spend a part of their 
remaining spare time reading and thinking about the 
labor problem. A leader, whether priest or layman, will 
be a great help. 

Groups such as this in Catholic parishes, societies and 
cities are greatly needed. They are a recognized part of 
Catholic work, and in other countries they are common. 
In some places in the United States they can already be 
found, but a vast number of them is required if Catholic 
social teachings are to animate us and if we are to restore 
all things in Christ. 

The Social Action Department of the National Cath- 
olic Welfare Council, 1312 Massachusetts Avenue, 
Washington, D. C, stands ready to help in assisting 
groups of people already at work, and others who intend 
to join together in what has been called "social study 
clubs." 



CONTENTS 



Introduction 5 

Section I. The Sources of the Social Question 8 

Chapter I. Conditions in Procluctio.i ... 8 

" II. Conditions in Buying and Selling 14 

" III. Conditions in Distribution ... 16 

" IV. Conditions of Living .... 21 

Section II. Ineffective Solutions 26 

Qiapter V. Socialism 26 

VI. The Single Tax 30 

VII. Labor Unions . . • 32 

Section III. Effective Solutions 36 

Chapter VIII. In the Relations of Production . 36 



(( 



IX. In the Relations of Buying and 

Selling 39 

" X. In Distribution . 41 

XI. In Living Conditions .... 45 



{< 



A Catechism of the Social Question 



INTRODUCTION. 

Q. 1. What do we mean by the social question? 

A. A qncstiofi denotes a problem or a difficulty which 
demands solution. A soci-al question is one that con- 
cerns society, or a social group. The social question 
means certain evils and grievances affecting the wage- 
earning classes, and calling for removal or remedy. Some 
of the grievances are: Low wages, long hours, unemploy- 
ment, industrial autocracy, bad housing, and insufficient 
provision for the future. 

Q. 2. Are there not many social questions? 

A. Yes. Any important difficulty, grievance, or prob- 
lem, which affects a social group, and arouses a demand 
for relief or solution, may properly be called a social 
question. Hence the problems of farm tenancy, the drift 
of population from country to city, the excessive cost of 
getting food from the producer to the consumer, taxation, 
divorce, poverty, vocational training — are all social ques- 
tions. 

Q. 3. Why then do we speak of "the*' social ques- 
tion? 

A. Because the grievances of the wage-earning popula- 
tion are more widely and seriously felt and discussed than 
the conditions which underlie any of the other social 
questions. The labor problem affects more men and 
women, involves greater social dangers, and calls forth 

.5 



6 A Catechism of the Social Question 

more proposals of social change than any other social 
problem. Therefore, it is properly called the social ques- 
tion. 

Q. 4. Did not the social question exist in former 
times ? 

A. In all ages the laboring population have had serious 
grievances. Frequently these grievances caused sufficient 
dissatisfaction and complaint to constitute a social ques- 
tion. Even in the later Middle Ages, when economic re- 
lations were profoundly influenced by Christian principles, 
there were loud complaints against the Gild system by 
journeymen artisans, and against the land system by the 
peasants. A century ago, the British classes endured 
sufferings and uttered protests that today seem almost 
incredible. 

Q. 5. Why is the social question so important in our 
time? 

A. Partly because the grievances of the working classes 
are still very considerable ; partly because the wage- 
earners are now strong enough and intelligent enough to 
compel general attention ; and partly because certain rem- 
edies are proposed which threaten social order and social 
welfare. 

Q. 6. Can we expect to solve the social question? 

A. It can be solved to a sufficient degree to re- 
move the most serious evils upon which it is based, and 
to improve considerably and continuously the conditions 
of life and labor. This means progress. Beyond this we 
cannot hope to go. In the words of Pope Leo XIII., "to 
sufifer and to endure is the lot of humanity." We cannot 
make earth heaven, either by social reforms or by any 
other course of action ; but we can make the life and labor 
of the masses more humane and more pleasing to God. 

Q. 7. Why should Catholics be interested in the so- 
cial question? 

A. Because they are commanded by God to love their 



Introduction 7 

neighbor, and to do justice. If all men performed these 
two duties to a degree that is easily possible, the wage- 
earners would have very few real grievances. If the 
moral and social principles of the Church were followed 
and enforced in the industrial world, there would be no 
such social question as the one that troubles us today. 
As Christians and Catholics, we ought to be eager to do 
our best toward making industrial conditions and rela- 
tions less contrary to justice and charity. The duty of 
Catholics to become interested in the social question, and 
to strive for a right solution of it, has been clearly and 
strongly asserted by our present Holy Father, and by his 
two immediate predecessors. The words of Pope Leo 
XIII, written thirty years ago in his encyclical on the 
Condition of Labor, are still pertinent and timely: "At 
the time being, the condition of the working classes is the 
pressing question of the hour; and nothing can be of 
higher interest to all classes of the State than that it 
should be rightly and reasonably adjusted." 

Q. 8. What conditions are the chief causes of the so- 
cial question? 

A. They are conditions in production, conditions in 
buying and seUing, conditions in distribution, and condi- 
tions of living. All these are discussed in the following 
pages. 

Readings. 

1. Pope Leo XIII., On the Condition of Labor (Brooklyn: 
International Catholic Truth Society). 

2. Parkinson, A Primer of Social Science, pp. 1-27 (New York: 
The Devin-Adair Co.). 

3. Brooks, Labor's Challenge to the Social Order, pp. 1-144 
(New York: The Macmillan Co.). 

4. Antoine, Cours d'£conomie Sociale, pp. 157-176 (Paris: 
Guillaumin et Cie.). 



SECTION I. 

The Sources of the Social Question. 

CHAPTER I. 

Conditions in Production. 

Q. 1. What are the causes of the social question in 
the field of production? 

A. The causes of the social question in the field of pro- 
duction are: First, harsh material conditions of work 
and livelihood. Second, undue subjection of the em- 
ployees to the employers' methods and purposes. Third, 
the frequently resulting inability or disinclination of the 
worker to give either a good day's work or his full knowl- 
edge and abilities. Fourth, the indifference of the worker 
to his task and to the welfare of the concern that employs 
him. 

Q. 2. Is the working day too long? 

A. A working day that passes eight hours is generally 
too long. Through labor unions, legislation, and the 
voluntary action of employers, the majority of industrial 
workers now have an eight-hour day, or nearly an eight- 
hour day. In the iron and steel industry plans are under 
way to substitute the eight-hour day for the twelve- 
hour day. In many if not in most industries the shorter 
work day is the more efficient. 

Q. 3. Is labor too exhausting? 

A. The shorter work day has diminished industrial 
fatigue. Nevertheless, some kinds of labor continued 
for even eight hours per day sap too much of the worker's 

8 



The Sources of the Social Question 9 

strength. He stands at strained attention, or is the victim 
of unscientific management. Such conditions are frequent 
in working Hfe and cause a considerable amount of ex- 
haustion. 

Q. 4. Is labor too unsafe? 

A. Before the war it was estimated that industrial ac- 
cidents levied a toll every year of 35,000 Hves, and in- 
capacitated 700,000 people for more than four weeks. 
During the war it is very probable that the rate of acci- 
dents increased, except in a few industries where strenu- 
ous measures were adopted to diminish them. Compe- 
tent authorities believe that between one-third and one- 
half of all industrial accidents could be avoided by inspec- 
tion, proper safeguards, and control. 

Q. 5. Is labor too unhealthful? 

A. A combination of bad working conditions and bad 
living conditions has made the wage-workers more hable 
to ill health than the rest of the population. Low wages, 
long hours, and unemployment, and the intense heat and 
cold, the dampness and the bad ventilation of many work- 
places are distinct causes of sickness. Nerve strain, the 
continued use of certain muscles, and working in dusts, 
gases, metals, vapors and fumes also have a bad effect 
on health. Women workers are especially subject to ill 
health from occupational conditions. One authority has 
said that ''there is scarcely one line of manufacturing 
which is free from the dangers of industrial poisoning." 
Yet that is only one of the causes of ill health among in- 
dustrial workers. 

Q. 6. Is labor too monotonous? 

A. Monotonous means ''continued with dull uniform- 
ity." A workman in a typical modern industry does one 
small part of a large work, and does it over and over 
again in exactly the same way. His work is continued 
with dull uniformity. 



10 A Catechism of the Social Question 

Q. 7. Is the laborer uninterested in his work? 

A. A man gets interested in his work when he sees 
what he is doing and knows that it is worth while ; when 
he knows why he is doing it, and finds the reason satis- 
fying; when he sees a definite and sufficient reward for 
his work; when he has an appreciable degree of control 
over his work and the way he does it, or when he believes 
he is justly treated. If these conditions are lacking, man's 
interest in his work no longer exists. So many of these 
conditions are wanting to so many of the workers, that 
a large proportion have little interest in their work. 

Q. 8. Does he need to belong to a union? 

A. As a rule, he cannot by himself improve his work- 
ing conditions, lessen the advantage in bargaining which 
the employer holds, or give dignity to his work in the 
sight of other people in the community. Through the 
union he can influence all three of these facts. 

Q. 9. Are the actions of the union always reason- 
able? 

A. No. Sometimes they are unreasonable and plainly 
vicious, as in the destruction of hfe and property, the 
breaking of contracts, and unnecessary strikes. Still, 
some of the policies of the unions that appear unreason- 
able and unjust are not to be condemned off-hand, since 
they are sometimes necessary and lawful measures of self- 
defense. 

Q. 10. Is the insecurity of employment excessive? 

A. In normal times there is a great amount of unem- 
ployment in all parts of the country. In periods of indus- 
trial depression it produces widespread and grievous hard- 
ship. Even in times of great prosperity there is a fringe 
of unemployment. Seasonal industries are very common, 
and add to the insecurity of livelihood. There are whole 
armies of people that migrate from one seasonal occupa- 
tion to another. There are others who drift about aim- 



The Sources of the Social Question 11 

lessly in the place where they Hve when their seasonal 
occupation declines or ceases entirely, 

Q. 11. Are strikes an important cause of the social 
question? 

^ A. Strikes do not cause the social question ; the con- 
ditions of work cause both the social question and strikes. 
Still, strikes intensify it and add to it by increasing bit- 
terness, misunderstanding-, unemployment and discon- 
tent. When they are successful, they sometimes soften 
the social question by increasing the strength of the 
workers and by bettering their employment conditions. 

Q. 12. Has the laborer too little control over the con- 
ditions of his employment and the processes in which 
he is engaged? 

A. Labor does not control finance, labor does not con- 
trol the purchase of materials, labor does not control sales, 
labor does not control industrial management, nor does 
labor control politics or world trade. These are among 
the large and important conditions of employment, but 
labor has little or no influence over any of "them. In 
some industries, the laborer has some influence over the 
processes of his work; in a great many industries, how- 
ever, this influence descends to the vanishing point. In 
handicraft trades the workingman has a great deal of con- 
trol over the methods of work. In machine industry he 
must follow the machine, and he follows it according to 
orders over which he has no control. 

Q. 13. Is the lack of profit-sharing a serious evil? 

A. An employee in industry gets only wages or a sal- 
ary. He gets his livelihood while he is working. There 
is no formal or close relation between the returns of the 
concern for which he is working and the amount of his 
remuneration. Wages and salaries are a part of the cost 
of production. The return to the owners in the form of 
interest or dividends is the difference between the cost of 
production and the gross income. Because the workers 



12 A Catechism of the Social Question 

do not share in this variable return, they lack a reasonable 
degree of interest in and control over their work. 

Q. 14. Is the lack of ownership by the laborer a seri- 
ous evil? 

A. Yes; because the final control of the conditions of 
work and livelihood is in the hands of those who own the 
means of livelihood. Lacking ownership, the workers 
lack a normal amount of personal independence. Lack 
of ownership also causes a lack of interest and of per- 
sonal responsibility. 

Q. 15. Is the concentration of capital into large in- 
dustrial units an evil? 

A. The concentration of capital into large industrial 
units brings on certain evils, among which are : The in- 
crease of the automatic quality of work, bad management, 
oftentimes lessened production, and the greater subjec- 
tion of the workers to the employers. Large industrial 
units in certain industries are a necessity, but most of the 
evils now connected with them are not necessary. 

Q. 16. Is the concentration of credit an evil? 

A. When a few men control credit they exercise the 
final control over industry, and over the Hves of a great 
part of the people. While the concentration of credit is 
possibly not as great as it was a few years ago, it is still 
excessive from the viewpoint of the public good. 

Q. 17. Whom have we in mind when we speak of 
"laborers," "workers," wage-earners?" 

A. Primarily those employees, whether skilled or un- 
skilled, who work by the day or by the piece in physical 
and mechanical occupations. The great majority of 
them are employed in the cities, on the railroads, and in 
the mines. A considerable proportion of farm laborers 
are somewhat better situated than urban wage-earners 
because they have greater security of employment and 
more intimate relations with their employers. The 
lesser salaried classes are in a position very similar to 



The Sources of the Social Question 13 

that of the wage earners. The large differences are : 
They are not so much subject to industrial accidents ; 
their work is physically cleaner ; they are not affected 
so quickly by industrial depression, or so readily dis- 
charged; they frequently have close contact with their 
employers ; fewer of them are organized ; and being en- 
gaged often in the buying and selling and clerical parts 
of business, they take on the business viewpoint and 
look forward more frequently to an executive position 
or to an independent or a partnership business venture. 

Q. 18. Is all labor honorable? 

A. The man who performs useful work, in whatever 
capacity or relation, benefits both himself and his fel- 
lows. And he imitates Christ. Until the beginning of 
His public life, our Saviour was an artisan, the reputed 
son of a carpenter. In the words of Pope Leo XIII., 
"labor is not a thing to be ashamed of, if w^e lend our 
ear to right reason and Christian philosophy, but is an 
honorable calling, enabling a man to sustain his life in 
a way tipright and creditable." The Pastoral Letter of 
the American Hierarchy, in quoting these words, adds : 
**The moral value of man and the dignity of human labor 
are cardinal points in this whole question." 

Readings. 

1. Lauck & Sydenstricker, Conditions of Labor in American 
Industries, Ch. II-V and VIII (New York: Funk & Wagnalls). 

2. Final Report of the Commission on Industrial Relations. 

3. Ryan, Social Reconstruction, Ch. VIII, IX (New York: 
The Macmillan Co.). 

4. Gantt, Organlzinq for Work (New York: Harcourt, Brace 
& Howe), Ch. VIII-XI. 

5. Brandeis, Other Peoples' Money (New York: Frederick A. 
Stokes Co.). 

6. Belloc, The Servile State, Ch. IV, V (London: Foulis). 



- CHAPTER II. 
Conditions in Buying and Selling. 

Q. 1. What are the principal causes of the social 
question in the relation of buying and selling ? 

A. The principal causes of the social question in the 
relation of buying and selling are : Excessive prices (the 
result at times of under-production), adulteration of 
commodities, and evils in the credit system. 

Q. 2. What are the chief causes of excessive prices? 

A. The chief causes of excessive prices are : Monopoly 
and an excessive number of middlemen. 

Q. 3. To what extent are prices fixed by monopoly 
or monopolistic agreement? 

A. It is not known to what extent prices are fixed by 
monopoly or monopolistic agreement. Open monopolies 
that are also public utility corporations are regulated to a 
greater or less extent. The United States Steel Corpora- 
tion, although it was found to be practically a monopoly, 
remains unregulated ; so, too, with the meat packers and 
other great concerns. Monopolies arising from the joint 
agreement of firms which in secret combination control the 
commodity in question, are widespread. Business agree- 
ments concerning prices are common. In many industries 
competition still survives in the quality of the goods and 
the quantity of sales, but not in prices. Some monopolies 
are only local. 

Q. 4. Give some idea of the portion of the product 
that goes to middlemen. 

A. Only estimates of thd portion of the product going to 
middlemen can be given. It is probable that one-half of 

14 



The Sources of the Social Question 15 

the cost of agricultural products goes to the different 
classes of middlemen and for transportation. Retailers, 
wholesalers, commission men, brokers, advertising agents, 
etc., receive a share of the profit. 

Q. 5. Give some idea of the extent to which adultera- 
tion is practised. 

A. It is not known what is the extent to which adul- 
teration in products is practised. The law has stopped 
certain very injurious food and drug substitutes by forc- 
ing publicity. Adulteration of food and drugs, however, 
still continues. There is no law protecting consumers of 
other kinds of goods from adulteration. The use of 
shoddy, the use of cotton for wool and silk, the use of 
paper in shoes, can be and is practised, and the consumer 
frequently knows nothing of it until he has used the goods 
for a short time. 

Q. 6. What are the principal evils of our credit 
system? 

A. The principal evils of our credit system are : That it 
can be readily used to keep up prices ; and that it is ex- 
tended upon the basis of the amount of profits, rather 
than according to the degree of needs, for example, as 
regards the farmers. 

Readings. 

1. Van Hise, Concentration and Control, Ch. I, II (New York: 
The Macmillan Co.)- 

2. Report of the Federal Trade Commission on the Meat Pack- 
ing Industry. Summary and Part I, pp. 31-76 (Gov't Printing 
Office). 

3. Husslein, The World Problem, Ch. V-VII (New York: P. J. 
Kenedy & Sons). 



CHAPTER III. 

Conditions in Distribution. 

Q. 1. What are the main causes of the social question 
in the distribution of wealth and income? 

A. The main causes of the social question in the distri- 
bution of wealth and income are: First, a small propor- 
tion of the population own too much wealth, while the 
great majority own too little; second, the incomes of a 
small proportion are unnecessarily large, while the in- 
comes of a large proportion are not sufficient for decent 
living. 

Q. 2. What is the difference between national wealth 
and national income? 

A. National wealth is the accumulation of goods exist- 
ing in the country at any given moment. National in- 
come is the amount of goods and services created during 
a given period, as, one year. It may also be conceived as 
the total annual payments to the persons who have 
through labor or ownership contributed to the production 
of the goods and services. 

Q. 3. How is the national wealth distributed among 
the families of the country? 

A. Prof. W. I. King says that two per cent of the 
people own sixty per cent of the wealth of the United 
States; another group composed of eighteen per cent of 
the people own thirty per cent of the wealth; another 
group of fifteen per cent of the people own five per cent 
of the wealth ; and the poorest, sixty-five per cent of the 
people, own only five per cent of the wealth. This means 

16 



The Sources of the Social Question 17 

that the poorest two-thirds of the people in the United 
States own about one-twentieth of our weakh, that the 
poorest together with the lower section of the middle 
class, who comprise in all four-fifths of the people, own 
only one-tenth of the wealth. The top layer of all com- 
poses only one-fiftieth of the people, and they own three- 
fifths of our national wealth. During the war about 
fifteen thousand new millionaires were created in this 
country. 

Q. 4. Which are the different economic classes among 
whom the national income is divided? 

A. The national income is divided among four classes : 
Those who receive wages and salaries ; those who receive 
rent; those who receive interest; and those who receive 
profits. 

Q. 5. What proportion of the national income is ob- 
tained by each of these? 

A. In 1910 about one-sixth of the national income went 
for interest ; slightly more than one-fourth for profits ; 
less than one-half for wages and salaries ; and about one- 
twelfth for rent. 

Q. 6. Which proportions are increasing and which 
decreasing ? 

A. Between 1890 and 1910 wages and salaries lost six 
points, and rent, interest, and profits gained, respectively, 
one, two, and three points. Profits lost three points from 
1900 to 1910, while rent gained a point, and interest, 
nearly two points. Economists point out that, since capi- 
tal increases faster than labor in our industrial system, 
the total share of capital is bound likewise to increase 
faster than the total share going to labor. This is a dif- 
ferent matter from the rate of interest. 

Q. 7. Is this a dangerous trend? 

A. This trend is dangerous because wages and salaries 
go to men and women who work. For their share of the 
national income to decline means a genuine social disease, 



18 A Catechism of the Social Question 

unless they also participate adequately in the share re- 
ceived by capital. 

Q. 8. What is the present level of wages? 

A. The present level of v^^ages stands betv^^een $4.00 
r.nd $6.00 a day for the majority of adult male workers. 
Some wage-earners receive more than $6.00 a day. Most 
of them, however, receive less than $5.00 a day. 

Q. 9. Have wage rates increased or decreased since 
the beginning of the twentieth century? 

A. Between 1900 and 1914 wage rates measured by 
the amount of goods that they would buy declined. Since 
1914, wage rates have kept in most cases a slight distance 
ahead of the rise in prices. If this latter judgment is 
true, it seems that since 1900 wages have not notably de- 
clined nor advanced, as measured by the cost of living. 

Q. 10. How high should wages be in order to be just? 

A. Wages for men should be at least high enough to 
provide a family with a decent Hvelihood. In large cities 
this is from $4.00 to $5.00 a day, or $1,200.00 to $1,500.00 
a year (May, 1921). Special rates ought to be given 
to those who undergo special expenses of prepara- 
tion, special hazards or hardships, and to those who are 
exceptionally productive. Wages for women should be 
at least enough to support themselves. In large cities this 
is about $14.00 to $15.00 a week (May, 1921). Women 
doing equal work with men should receive equal rates of 
pay. 

Q. 11. What rates of interest are just? 

A. On loans the just rates-are those which prevail in 
the open market. On invested capital the just rates are 
somewhat higher than the just rates on loans, owing to 
the greater risk than a man takes when he puts his money 
into a business. Moreover, when the business in which a 
man has invested his capital actively competes with simi- 
lar enterprises, the investor will be justified in taking all 
the interest that the business yields, provided that labor 



The Sources of the Social Question 19 

is given just wages. Nevertheless, it would be econom- 
ically better and ethically fairer to share surplus interest 
with labor. 

Q. 12. Have business men a right to unlimited 
profits? 

A. Yes, on two conditions : First, that they are actively 
competing with others in the same kind of business ; sec- 
ond, that they are paying just wages to labor and treat- 
ing justly all other men with whom they have business 
contracts. 

Q. 13. Have the owners of a monopoly a right to all 
the interest and profits that they can obtain? 

A. They have no such right when their unusually high 
gains are due to the exercise of arbitrary economic power, 
rather than to superior efficiency, productivity, or useful 
service. 

Q. 14. Do the great capitalists get too large a share 
of the national income? 

A. Those who owe their large incomes to the exercise 
of monopoly power receive too great a share. Probably 
the majority of large incomes are due in part, at least, to 
this factor. Capitalists whose large incomes are derived 
from immense investments alone cannot be said to obtain 
an excessive share, provided that their investments are 
subject to active competition. Those who derive their 
large incomes from the active direction of a competitive 
business do not receive too much, provided that they deal 
justly with labor and all the other agents of production. 

Q. 15. Are our natural resources and industrial equip- 
ment suflicient to maintain all classes in comfort? 

A. Prof. W. I. King in his book on The Wealth and 
Income of the People of the United States, estimates that 
in 1910 the national income if evenly divided would have 
given to each person $332.00. Since 1910, the national 
income has more than doubled. Therefore, all persons 
and families could have living wages, and a considerable 



20 A Catechism of the Social Question 

proportion of the population could have more than that 
amount. Prof. David Friday in his recent book, Profits, 
Wages, and Prices, declares that "the possibility of rais- 
ing the real wages of labor to the point where the means 
of well-being shall be realized for all classes remains no 
longer a mere dream. It has become a possibility." Our 
national income could be greatly increased through better 
methods of production, and saner relations between labor 
and capital. 

Readings. 

1. King, Wealth and Income of the People of the United States 
(New York: The Macmillaii Co.). 

2. Lauck & Sydenstricker, Conditions of Labor in American 
Industries, Ch. II, IX (New York: Funk & Wagnalls). 

3. Friday, Profits, Wages, and Prices (New York: Harcourt, 
Brace & Howe). 

4. Ryan, A Living Wage (New York: The Macmillan Co.). 

5. Ryan, Distributive Justice, pp. 171-204, 254-277 (New York: 
The MprwiJ);'?) Co.). 



CHAPTER IV. 

Conditions of Living. 

Q. 1. What are the chief causes of the social ques- 
tion in living conditions? 

A. The chief causes of the social question as regards 
Hving conditions may be summarized as material, moral, 
and religious. Among evil conditions of the material or- 
der, the greatest relate to housing, food, clothing, and the 
lack of economic security. 

Q. 2. What are the chief evils ia the matter of 
housing ? 

A. Too many people are cramped together in cities; 
the houses are too close together ; many of the working 
people have not enough space in their homes for comfort 
and health ; too large a proportion of them are renters ; 
too many of the families are compelled to take in board- 
ers or lodgers ; and insufficient housing tends of itself to 
produce an undesirable neighborhood, which makes right- 
eous living too difficult for average human nature. 

Q. 3. In the matter of food? 

A. Wage-earners' families sometimes do not get enough 
food. Sometimes it is sufficient in quantity, 'but insuffi- 
cient in quality. More than other classes, the working 
people are deceived by lying advertisements in foodstuffs. 
When wage-earners receive an increase in wages, the first 
effect is an improvement in the quantity and quality of 
their food. 

Q. 4. In the matter of clothing? 

A. Insufficient clothing of the proper kind, and much 
waste of money in the purchase of shoddy and other 
forms of supposedly cheap apparel. 

21 



22 A Catechism of the Social Question 

Q. 5. In the matter of economic security? 

A. By economic security is meant the moral certainty 
of getting continuous work and thus of obtaining a con- 
tinuous livelihood. Since very few wage-earners have 
this certainty, they are deprived of economic security. 
Either unemployment or part-time work is always among 
the practical problems of life for the majority, and for 
many it is an almost constant source of worry. Even in 
normal times there is a large number of persons out of 
employment. In times of industrial depression and in 
seasonal trades unemployment is very great. The fear 
of unemployment and the actual experience of it, cause a 
vast amount of misery, discouragement, discontent, and 
inefficiency. 

Q. 6. How does the industrial system affect the prac- 
tise of religion? 

A. Men in industry normally work with machinery, and 
do not have close contact with nature and the things that 
have come directly from God. Moreover, even in 
their dealings with machinery, they have a very small de- 
gree of responsibility and control over its use. These 
two facts have an influence on their realization of their 
dependence upon God, and tend toward lessening the 
practise of religion. The harsh material conditions un- 
der which many must live also tend in the same direction. 
The domirfant rules of business life slowly influence many 
others to accept a materialistic viewpoint and substitute 
mammon worship for the worship of God. These are 
only influences, however, and do not take away man's fre: 
will or his responsibility. 

Q. 7. How does the industrial system influence 
morality? 

A. The decline in the practise of religion and in the 
hold which religion has upon society influences also the 
morals of the people. In so far as the industrial system 
has an evil effect upon religion, to that degree at least ii 



The Sources of the Social Question 23 

injuriously affects morals. Insufficiency of income makes 
right living excessively difficult in a hundred ways. 
Sometimes men and women are subjected to unusual 
temptations in the workshop. The prevailing code of 
busmess and industrial ethics is on a low moral plane. 

Q. 8. How does the industrial system influence edu- 
cation? 

A. Here again is the question of environment. Lack 
of time, lack of incentive, lack of strength, and the com- 
pulsion of the struggle for livelihood diminish the oppor- 
tunities men have of obtaining a good education, and 
weaken their desire and their power to grasp the oppor- 
tunities available. 

Q. 9. How does the industrial system affect home 
life? 

^ A. It aflfects home life by the harsh material condi- 
tions of living which it imposes upon families. Frequency 
of unemployment and bad housing conditions are among 
the particular enemies of the home. The necessity the 
father often meets of moving to another city in search of 
a job makes this worse, and is one of the conditions lead- 
ing on to divorce. Insufficient income among men, and 
the excessive number of working women, lessen the num- 
ber of marriages and form a strong temptation towards 
the practise of race suicide. The fact that the members 
of the family and particularly the young people in the 
family frequently have their own separate employment 
and receive separate incomes, tends toward weakening 
the unity and harmony of family life today. Extra ef- 
forts are required to surmount these natural barriers to 
sound family life. 

Q. 10. How does the industrial system affect citizen- 
ship? 

A. Religion, morals, and education when affected ad- 
versely by the industrial system or by other causes, lower 
the quality of citizenship. It is hard for men under pres- 



24 A Catechism of the Social Question 

ent-day conditions to get the truth about the industrial 
system because the agencies of information and opinion 
are largely under the control of interests that desire to 
continue existing abuses. The resentment against injus- 
tices in the industrial system impels many men to distrust 
and lose respect for our civic and political institutions. 
The lack of industrial property in a large proportion of 
the population lessens greatly their political influence, and 
renders them relatively indifferent to the duties of citizen- 
ship. 

Q. 11. How do materialistic standards of welfare in- 
tensify the social question? 

A. By spreading among all classes the notion that wel- 
fare consists in the indefinite increase of sense satisfac- 
tions. This notion is applied to dwellings, food, cloth- 
ing, recreation and amusements, and social position. In- 
stead of the principle that right life and the development 
of personality consist in the activity of the mind and in 
disinterested love, there exists among all classes the per- 
suasion that man's highest good is to be found in the 
widest experience of physical and emotional sensations. 
The higher and spiritual faculties are subordinated to 
the lower and animal faculties, and the result is disap- 
pointment and discontent. 

Q. 12. Has the prevalence of luxury any effect in 
intensifying the social question? 

A. Yes; in addition to its influence in promoting the 
false standards of welfare just described, luxury pro- 
vokes envy, hatred, and revolutionary movements among 
the poorer classes. 

Q. 13. Is the social question intensified by the de- 
cline in religious belief and morals? 

A. Undoubtedly. The decay of genuine religious be- 
lief causes men to expect more from this earthly life than 
it can give, and to undervalue the processes of suffering. 
The corruption of morals plunges men into material 



The Sources of the Social QucsIl^a 2j 

things, and causes them to disregard the laws of justice 
and charity in the pursuit of wealth. 

Readings. 

1. Lauck & Sydenstricker, Conditions of Labor in American 
Industries, Ch. VII, VIII, III, IV (New York: Funk & Wag- 
nails). 

2. Wood, Housing of the Unskilled Wage-Earner (New York: 
The Macmillan Co.)- 

3. Keppler, More Joy (St. Louis: B. Herder). 

4. Kelley, Modern Industry in Relation to the Family, Health, 
Education, and Morality (New York: Longmans, Green & Co.). 

5. Ryan, The Church and Socialism (Washington: The Uni- 
versity Press). 



SECTION 11. 

Incifcctivc Solutions. 
CHAPTER V. 

Socialism. 

Q. 1. What remedy is proposed by the Socialists? 

A. Socialists propose the common ownership and man- 
agement of all the means of production and distribution, 
or all except very small industries dealing in luxuries and 
works of art, etc. The government, national and local, 
would be the owner and manager of all land, factories, 
banks, stores, and means of transportation, and all per- 
sons who worked in these industries would be employees 
of the government. 

Q. 2. Why would the economic proposals of Socialism 
be ineffective? 

A, Because men would not have sufficient incentives to 
efficient work. Fixed salaries could not bring out the 
best efforts of those who managed industry, while the 
rank and file of the workers would either be compelled to 
labor under despotic regulations or would have such con- 
trol over the management that they could hold their jobs 
without working hard. All persons would be compelled 
to sell their labor to and buy their goods from one source, 
i.amely, the government. 



Ineffective Solutions 27 

Q. 3. Are there other objections to Socialism besides 
those drawn from economic considerations? 

A. Other objections against Socialism arise from the 
dependence of the individual and his absorption into the 
State, or the economic group of which he is a part. The 
State would have not only all the power that it now en- 
joys, but also all the power that goes to a monopolist- 
capitahst, and the unimaginable power of these two in 
combination. The individual would be helpless. 

Q. 4. What is the attitude of the Socialist Party 
toward religion? 

A. The Socialist movement has been based hitherto 
upon a form of materialism. It has insisted that all social 
institutions, religion included, are caused in the last analy- 
sis by economic conditions. To put it grossly, there is 
no God ; God was created by men for the purpose of in- 
creasing the subjection of the poor. Religion, so the 
movement has proclaimed, is an opiate lulling men to con- 
tentment with the hope of a reward in the world to come. 

Q. 5. And toward the family? 

A. Socialism holds that the family, too, is merely a 
product of economic conditions, that the good of society 
is paramount, and that society must dominate men and 
their families. The family is not to their mind a unit 
with natural rights. The ties of the family should be 
very loose, so that society can intervene very easily, and, 
according to its desires, or the desires of the majority, 
do whatever it wills with the children and the whole fam- 
ily unit. Consequently, it favors the freest kind of di- 
vorce, and in the name of freedom proclaims its adher- 
ence to a loose conception of family ties. 

Q. 6. What is the attitude of the Church toward 
Socialism? 

A. Pope Leo XIII. rejected and condemned Socialism 
as injurious to those whom it is designed to benefit, as 
contrary to the natural rights of mankind, and as certain 



28 A Catechism of the Social Question 

to introduce confusion and disorder into the common- 
wealth. Such, in fact, has been the unvarying attitude of 
the Church since the doctrines of Socialism first became 
prominent. It must be kept in mind, however, that what 
the Church condemns is Socialism in the strict and com- 
plete sense. 

Q. 7. Is every legislative proposal called "Socialistic" 
condemned by the Church? 

A. To call a proposal Socialistic does not make it So- 
cialism. Socialism is common ownership and manage- 
ment of substantially all the means of production. For 
the government to own a few industries and manage 
them is not Socialism ; for the men in an industry to own 
it and manage it cooperatively under one form or another 
is not Socialism ; for the government to own a few indus- 
tries and the men in the industry either alone or with 
the assistance of tlie government to manage those in- 
dustries is not Socialism. Workmen's compensation acts 
and social insurance laws are not Socialism. Oftentimes 
"Socialistic" is hurled at proposals merely to deter people 
from adopting them. Whether a certain extension of 
government control over industry is "Socialistic" in the 
sense that it impels society toward Socialism, is a complex 
question. In some cases such governmental action would 
have the precisely opposite cfifect. In every case there is 
presented a choice between two evils, namely, the possi- 
bility of an impulse toward Socialism, and the continued 
toleration of existing wrongs and hardships. The safest 
guidance in any such situation is provided by the prin- 
ciple set forth by Pope Leo XIII. : "Whenever the gen- 
eral interest, or any particular class, suffers or is threat- 
ened with mischief which can in no other way be met or 
prevented, the public authority must step in and deal 
with it." 



Ineffective Solutions 29 



Readings. 

1. Cathrein-Gettleman, Socialism (New York: Benziger 
Brothers). 

2. Hillquit-Ryan, Socialism, Promise, or Menace f (New York : 
The Macmillan Co.) 

3. Elder, A Study in Socialism (St. Louis: B. Herder). 

4. Goldstein-Avery, Socialism, The Nation of Fatherless Chil- 
dren (Boston: Union News Co.) 

5. Skelton, Socialism: A Critical Analysis (Boston: Houghtoti 
Mifflin Co.). 

6. McGowan, Bolshevism in Russia and America (Nation:.! 
Catholic Welfare Council). 



CHAPTER VI. 

The Single Tax. 

Q. 1. What remedy is proposed by the Single 
Taxers? 

A. Single Taxers propose that the government take all 
the annual rent of land in taxes. Every user of land 
would be required to pay in taxes every year an amount 
equal to that which a tenant would have to pay the owner. 
Since the State would take all the annual income of the 
land, the owner would find his land deprived of all sell- 
ing value. The Single Taxers maintain that because land 
ownership is a privilege and the source of all privileges, 
its abolition would allow all people to use their natural 
endowments. Justice would result. The whole social 
question would be solved. 

Q. 2. What are the objections to it from the side of 
economics? 

A. If no one could obtain an income from land values, 
there would be a tendency toward drifting about the coun- 
try. Farmers, for example, would be inclined to exhaust 
their land and then move on to another farm. The two 
difficulties, land exhaustion and insecure tenure of land, 
would exist under the Single Tax system. 

Q. 3. What from the side of morals? 

A. For the State to take all land values without com- 
pensation would be robbery. According to Single Tax, 
no reimbursement of the landowners is intended. 

Q. 4. What is the attitude of the Church toward the 
Single Tax? 

30 



Ineffective Solutions 31 

A. There has been no explicit condemnation of the 
Single Tax system by the Church. However, the Church 
does proclaim the rightfulness of private ownership of 
land, and consequently condemns the proposal to intro- 
duce the Single Tax system without compensation to pri- 
vate landowners. 

Q. 5. Is every proposal to increase relatively the 
taxes on land liable to the objections described above? 

A. By no means. The land system is suffering from a 
great many evils. Some monopolies are dependent upon 
their ownership of natural resources. Landownership, 
both in the city and the country, is falling into the hands 
of a smaller proportion of the people, and is gaining 
higher returns at the expense of labor. Land specula- 
tion is common. People wanting to occupy land are pre- 
vented by its owners who prefer to hold it idle for future 
gains. These evil conditions need reformation. Higher 
land taxes are one method of removing these evils. A 
gradual shifting of the taxes on improvements to land 
would be just and beneficial. Land taxes taking a part 
or even all of the future increase of land values would not 
be unjust so long as the present owners of land would be 
reimbursed for their positive losses. A super tax on large 
holdings of land is desirable in some parts of the country. 

Readings. 

1. Ryan, Distributive Justice, pp. 21-51 (New York: The Mac- 
millan Co.). 

2. Preuss, The Fundamental Fallacy of Socialism (St. Louis: 
B. Herder Book Co.). 



CHAPTER VII. 

Labor Unions. 

Q. 1. What are the main remedies proposed by the 
labor or trade unions? 

A. The main remedies proposed by the labor unions 
are: Better wages, a reasonable day's work, and good 
conditions of employment. These are to be obtained by 
collective bargaining. All the men in a trade or industry 
imite in one organization and bargain with single em- 
ployers or with organizations of employers. When the 
attempt to obtain a collective agreement fails, the union 
sometimes autlTorizes a strike. The purpose of the strike 
is to force the employers to meet the demands of the em- 
ployees. 

Q. 2. Why will trade union action alone prove in- 
effective to increase incomes sufficiently? 

A. Trade union action alone will prove ineffective to 
increase incomes sufficiently for three reasons : First, be- 
cause the poorest paid sections of the working class can- 
not be organized with sufficient effectiveness ; second, be- 
cause even a general increase in wages will not be ade- 
quate without an increase in productive efficiency, and 
the trade unions have no systematic program to bring 
about such an increase ; third, the unions cannot provide 
the workers with either security of employment or con- 
tinuous employment. 

Q. 3. What are the main defects of the trade unions ? 

A. The main defects of the trade unions are : Their 
tendency to benefit mainly the skilled and better paid 
workers; their neglect hitherto of methods whereby em- 

32 



Ineffective Solutions 33 

ployers and employees could unite to increase production 
through common agreement; their disregard of the in- 
terests of consumers and the general public in relation to 
strikes and arbitration; and sometimes their unreasonable 
demands as regards wages and working rules and condi- 
tions. 

Q. 4. Are these defects necessarily greater than the 
defects in the industrial conduct of the employing class? 

A. These defects are not necessarily greater than the 
defects in the industrial conduct of the employing class. 
If many employees in their unions have not taken suf- 
ficient interest in greater production, many employers 
have not considered the need of taking into their confi- 
dence and intrusting responsibility to their employees. 
Moreover, many employers have made as their rule of 
business the highest possible profits, and, according to 
that rule, have diminished production or stopped it en- 
tirely. 

Q. 5. Are labor unions necessary? 

A. Labor unions are necessary. They are necessary 
because they are the only means that the employees have 
of determining the conditions of their work and their 
livelihood. As single individuals they can do almost 
nothing. When united with other employees in the same 
trade or industry, they can choose representatives who 
have both the skill and the independence to obtain a bet- 
ter bargain from the employer than would be otherwise 
possible. Moreover, when the individual employee^ quits 
his job because of dissatisfaction with working conditions, 
his action has little or no beneficial effect. If he quits in 
combination with others, the employer is frequently com- 
pelled to concede better terms and conditions of work. In 
our industrial system the individual employee has not 
equal bargaining power with the individual employer. 

Q. 6. Have the authorities of the Church spoken in 
favor of labor unions? 



34 A Catechism of the Social Question 

A. Yes. In his encyclical on the Condition of Labor, 
Pope Leo XIII strongly defended the right and neces- 
sity of the workers to organize, and ended the discussion 
with the following statement: "We may lay it down as 
a general and lasting law that workingmen's associations 
should be so organized and governed as to furnish the 
best and most suitable means for attaining what is aimed 
at, that is to say, for helping each individual member to 
better his condition to the utmost in body, mind, and 
property." The Archbishops and Bishops of the United 
States affirmed, in their Pastoral Letter of 1920, "the 
right of the workers to form and maintain the kind of 
organization that is necessary, and that will be most ef- 
fectual in securing their welfare." The four American 
Bishops who issued the Program of Social Reconstruc- 
tion proclaimed the "right of labor to organize and to 
deal with employers through its chosen representatives," 
and expressed the hope that "this right will never again 
be called in question by any considerable number of em- 
ployers." 

Q. 7. What proportion of the wage-earners belong to 
unions? 

A. About five million workers are in labor unions in 
the United States. This is between twenty and twenty- 
five per cent, of all those who can reasonably be called 
organizable. 

Q. 8. Are the members of labor unions more reason- 
able than employers? 

A. Not necessarily. They have the same human na- 
ture as the employers and, therefore, the same temptations 
to act selfishly and to abuse their economic power. Their 
exhibitions of selfishness are sometimes cruder and more 
spectacular than are the selfish actions of employers, be- 
cause their economic weapons are of a coarser and more 
obtrusive kind ; for example, the strike and its occasional 
violent features. They generally lack the more refined 



Ineffective Solutions 35 

methods of warfare which are within the reach of those 
who possess financial power. If the sympathy of compe- 
tent and impartial persons is more generally on the side 
of labor than of capital, the sufficient reason is not a be- 
lief in the superior virtue of the former, but the knowl- 
edge that on the whole labor has not been treated as 
fairly as capital in our industrial system. 

Readings. 

1. Husslein, The World Problem, Ch. X-XII, XVI (New 
York: P. J. Kenedy & Sons). 

2. Ryan, Social Reconstruction, Ch. VII (New York: The 
Macmillan Co.). 

3. Pope Leo XIII., The Condition of Labor. 

4. The Pastoral Letter of the American Hierarchy (Washing- 
ton: National Catholic Welfare Council). 

5. Hoxie, Trade Unionism in the United States (New York: 
D. Appleton & Co.). 

6. Gompers, Labor and the Common Welfare (New York : E. 
P. Button & Co.). 



SECTION III. 

Effective Solutions. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

In the Relations of Production. 

Q. 1. What are the principal remedial measures re- 
quired in the relations of production? 

A. Recognition of the right of labor to organize and 
to bargain collectively. A gradual change of status for 
the worker, so that he v/ill be a partner rather than a serv« 
ant in production; hence labor participation in manage- 
ment, profit-sharing, and some degree of ownership. 
There is need also of vocational training; measures for 
the prevention and reduction of unemployment; the 
elimination of unnecessary waste in production ; systematic 
methods for preventing and adjusting industrial disputes; 
the reduction of the excessively long work day where it 
still exists ; the extension of devices to provide safety and 
sanitation in work places ; the improvement and extension 
of workmen's compensation laws ; and the diffusion and 
observance of the principles of religious morality. 

Q. 2. How can working people be induced to produce 
more? 

A. They can be induced to produce more if the re- 
wards of their labor correspond to the work done, if they 
have more influence over the conditions of work, if they 

Z6 



In the Relations of Production 37 

are given an opportunity to advise with employers con- 
cerning the methods of production, and if they are per- 
mitted to share in the surplus profits. 

Q. 3. What is to be thought of vocational training ? 

A. Vocational training is a good thing, so long as it is 
made subsidiary to training of the mind and will. It 
ought not be imparted in special schools, nor in any other 
manner tend to separate the children of the wage-earners 
into a fixed and lower class. It should be practical, theo- 
retical, and cultural. 

Q. 4. How can waste in production be lessened? 

A. By every method and motive that will make the 
laborer more interested in his work; by adequate indus- 
trial training; by the use of the most scientific machinery, 
methods, and processes, applied in a humane spirit; and 
by the diffusion of the sense of moral responsibility 
among all industrial classes. 

Q. 5. How can the evil of unemployment be re- 
duced? 

A. The evil of unemployment can be reduced in sev- 
eral ways. Government work in time of industrial de- 
pression would be one important means. A system of 
national employment bureaus cooperating with State, city, 
and private employment bureaus, would also be of value. 
Social insurance against unemployment would tide over 
periods when men could get no work. Greater care by 
employers in hiring men so as to choose those most fitted 
for the particular kind of work, would have some influ- 
ence. Seasonal trades should be so regulated that the 
dull season in some would occur at the same time as the 
busy season in others. 

Q. 6. How can industrial peace be promoted? 

A. Industrial peace can be promoted to some extent 
by a regular system of collective bargaining between em- 
ployers and labor unions. A labor board similar to the 
National War Labor Board, or regional commissions like 



38 A Catechism of the Social Question 

those suggested by President Wilson's Second Indus- 
trial Conference, if the latter were accepted by the 
unions, would prove very effective. Compulsory inves- 
tigation of the facts and issues of an industrial dispute 
is both reasonable and desirable. Living wages, labor 
sharing in management and profits, and all the other 
means described in the answer to Question 1, would 
have some influence. 

Q. 7. What effect have the principles of religious 
morality on the question of industrial peace? 

A. Justice, charity, the dignity of manhood, and hu- 
man brotherhood are a part of religious teaching, and if 
followed would greatly promote industrial peace. In 
course of time, they would bring about an industrial sys- 
tem in which peace would be the normal condition, and 
strife the exception. 

Readings. 

1. Social Reconstruction (Bishops' Program), National Cath- 
olic War Council. 

2. Ryan, Social Reconstruction, Ch. V, VI (New York: The 
Macmillan Co.). 

3. Ryan, Capital and Labor (National Catholic Welfare Coun- 
cil). 



CHAPTER IX. 
In the Relations of Buying and Selling. 

Q. 1. What are the chief remedies to be applied in 
this field? 

A. The legal prohibition or control of monopoly, co- 
operative enterprises, and the legal prevention of methods 
of adulteration. 

Q. 2, By what measures can the evils of monopoly 
best be met? 

A. Monopoly is either natural or artificial. No kind 
of monopoly should be allowed to be unregulated. When 
the monopoly is an artificial one it is sometimes able to 
defy the law for a long time. Government price-fixing 
can prevent only the more extreme abuses. Government 
competition with refractory monopolies may be necessary 
in some cases. Even government ownership of a whole 
monopolized commodity under democratic management, 
and with control of prices, might be the only adequate 
remedy in extreme cases. 

Q. 3. How can cooperation remove middlemen and 
bring down prices? 

A. Cooperative societies remove middlemen because the 
members of the societies perform for themselves the 
work of the retailer and wholesaler. They are also able 
to take the place of brokers, commission men, etc. They 
reduce the superfluous expenses of an excessive number 
of middlemen, and they save the profits of all the middle- 
men excluded. That cooperative societies can be suc- 
cessful is a proven fact. In the matter of food products, 
cooperative marketing associations among the farmers 
can be very helpful to the consumer as well as to the pro- 
ducer. 

39 



40 A Catechism of the Social Question 

Q. 4. By what measures can adulteration of goods be 
lessened? 

A. Adulteration ol goods can be lessened by the enact- 
ment of laws and rigid inspection. If the consumers were 
also organized in cooperative societies, their influence 
upon inspection and upon business practices would be of 
assistance. 

Q. 5. How can the credit system be improved? 

A. The credit system can be improved by means of 
cooperative banks and by further regulation of the bank- 
ing system so that preference would be given to pro- 
ducers, farmers included, instead of to speculators. 

Q. 6. What is the attitude of the Church toward co- 
operative effort? 

A. The Church has no official teaching on the subject, 
but from Bishop Ketteler down, Catholic bishops and 
priests have been prominent in the movement every- 
where. Cooperative societies composed of consumers as 
well as those composed of producers correspond more 
closely to Catholic principles than any other economic 
system. Cooperative societies restore and preserve the 
strength of individuals, and unite them as strong indi- 
viduals in brotherly action. 

Readings. 

1. Van Hise, Concentration and Control, Ch. V. (New York: 
The Macmillan Co.). 

2. Husslein, The World Problem, Ch. XIX-XXI (New York: 
P. J. Kenedy & Sons). 

3. Harris, Cooperation, the Hope of the Consumer (New York: 
The Macmillan Co.). 

4. Sonnichsen, Consumers' Cooperation (New York: The Mac- 
millan Co.). 

5. Cooperation Among Farmers and Consumers (Washington: 
National Catholic War Council). 

6. Ryan-Husslein, The Church and Labor, Introduction, pp. 
24-39 (New York: The Macmillan Co.). 



CHAPTER X. 
In Distribution. 

Q. 1. What are the chief means of bringing about a 
better distribution? 

A. Higher wages for the underpaid, social insurance, 
profit-sharing, copartnership, cooperative production, 
and taxation. 

Q. 2. How can low rates of wages be raised? 

A. By means of strong unions among the workers, 
minimum wage laws, and increased production, 

Q. 3. What is the attitude of the Church toward these 
methods? 

A. The Church favors labor organization and stresses 
its importance. The Church maintains the right of work- 
ers to living wages, and that when it is impossible for de- 
cent wages to be obtained by voluntary agreement be- 
tween employers and employees, then it is not only the 
right, but also the duty, of the State to secure that object 
by legislation. 

Q. 4. What is included in the phrase, social insur- 
ance? 

A. Chiefly insurance against sickness, old age, and un- 
employment. In an ideal arrangement wages would be 
sufficiently high to enable the worker to insure hirnself 
against these contingencies. So long as that condition 

41 



42 A Catechism of the Social Question 

does not exist, the industries in which workers spend 
their lives ought to provide for all the life needs of the 
workers. Until this becomes practicable, the cost of so- 
cial insurance will have to be borne in some measure by 
the State and the workers, as well as by the employers. 
However, no worker whose wages are so low that they 
are all required to meet his present reasonable needs, 
should be compelled to pay any part of the insurance 
premiums. 

Q. 5. What is meant by profit-sharing? 

A. Giving to the laborer in addition to his regular 
wages a part of the surplus profits ; that is, a part of those 
profits which remain after all expenses have been paid 
and capital has received a fair rate of interest. 

Q. 6. What is meant by co-partnership? 

A. An arrangement by which the wage-earners are 
permitted to become owners of shares of stock in the cor- 
poration that employs them, and to receive the regular 
dividend which the stock yields. 

Q. 7. What is meant by cooperative production? 

A. The ownership and management of a concern by 
the workers themselves. 

Q. 8. What are the chief advantages of cooperative 
production? 

A. The chief advantages of cooperative production are 
that men would control their own work and the returns 
would all go to those who worked. It would also in- 
crease production because men always work harder when 
they own the tools and the product — when they work for 
themselves rather than for others. Moreover, groups of 
cooperative producers would compete among themselves 
as equals or as approximate equals, and monopolistic con- 
trol of commodities would be much more difficult than it 
is today. The spirit of cooperation and brotherhood 



hi the Relations of Production 43 

would be strengthened, and the spirit of economic war- 
fare weakened. 

Q. 9. What remedies suggested in the last two chap- 
ters would be helpful? 

A. The industrial system is so closely knit that many 
things which would help in production and in buying and 
selling would have an influence also upon the distribution 
of wealth. Collective bargaining, labor sharing in man- 
agement, minimum wage laws, labor boards of concilia- 
tion and arbitration, remedies for unemployment, the 
shorter work day, safety and health in work, cooperative 
stores and banks, and the measures recommended to meet 
the evils of monopoly — would all influence for the better 
the distribution of wealth and income. 

Q. 10. What are the remedies for excessive income? 

A. Remedies that would directly reduce excessive in- 
comes are the following : Income taxes, excess profit 
taxes, inheritance taxes, and land taxes. Means that 
would tend to prevent them are all the reforms already 
described in this Chapter and in Chapter IX. 

Q. 11. What is the attitude of the Church toward the 
foregoing proposals? 

A. The Church has made, no explicit pronouncement 
on any of them. Pope Leo's declaration that the work- 
ers should become property owners would be realized 
through co-partnership and cooperation. His principle 
of State intervention would justify social insurance. 
(See Question 7, Chap. V.) The authoritative private 
teachers in the Church, namely, the moral theologians, 
approve the principle of progressive taxation, but main- 
tain that it should not be so far extended as to produce 
confiscation. In general, the Church teaches that private 
property is a limited right, existing for human welfare, 
and to be regulated, but not abohshed, by the State in the 
interest of human welfare. 



44 A Catechism of the Social Question 



Readings. 

1. Social Reconstruction (Bishops' Program), (Washington: 
National Catholic War Council. 

2. Ryan, Capital and Labor (Washington: National Catholic 
Welfare C^ouncil). 

3. Husslein, Democratic Industry, Ch. XXVII, XXIX, XXX 
(New York: P. J. Kenedy & Sons). 

4. Baker, The Nezv Industrial Unrest, Ch. XIII-XVIII (New 
York: Doubleday, Page & Co.). 

5. Ryan, Social Reconstruction, Ch. V, VIII, IX (New York: 
The Macmillan Co.). 

6. Ryan, Distributive Justice, pp. 291-300 (New York: The 
Macmillan Co.). 

7. Husslein, A Catholic Social Platform (New York: P. J. 
Kenedy & Sons). 



CHAPTER XL 
In Living Conditions. 

Q. 1. What remedies already described would im- 
prove conditions of living? 

A. Strong- labor unions, minimum wage laws, social in- 
surance, profit-sharing, cooperative production, coopera- 
tive consumers' societies, the remedies for monopolies — 
would all have direct and great beneficial effects. 

Q. 2. What is to be said of government housing? 

A. Cities could help the housing situation by buying 
land and constructing houses for their citizens, and by 
cooperating with efficient private effort. The houses 
could be leased or sold on long term loans at a low rate 
of interest. State and federal subsidies to such under- 
takings would not be out of place. The States could also 
establish a system of loans to home-builders. 

Q. 3. How can materialistic standards of life best be 
met and lessened? 

A. Materialistic standards of life can best be met 
through the widespread practise of religion, and the dif- 
fusion of saner views of life and welfare. Economic and 
social reforms would probably tend to lessen the worship 
of wealth and of material enjoyments. 

Q. 4. What specific methods must be employed to 
counteract the decline in morals and religion? 

A. The specific methods to be employed to counteract 
the decHne in morals and religion are : First, more zealous 
practise of religion by those who profess it; second, 

45 



46 A Catechism of the Social Question 

greater zeal in spreading the truths of rehgion; third, 
good example in business life by those who profess re- 
ligion; and fourth, the reformation of the economic 
system. 

Q. 5. Would the legal and economic remedies advo- 
cated in the foregoing pages of themselves solve the 
social question? 

A. Legal and economic remedies would not of them- 
selves solve the social question. They are of considerable 
value, but there must also be a change in the spirit and 
ideals of men and women. 

Q. 6. Would these, plus the religious and moral rem- 
edies, solve it completely? 

A. Even the legal and economic remedies plus the re- 
ligious and moral remedies would not solve the question 
completely. Men will never be entirely satisfied on this 
earth, and a large part of their dissatisfaction will always 
be connected with economic conditions. There will al- 
ways be a social question. 

Q. 7. To what extent is social discontent harmful? 

A. When social discontent is very grave and wide- 
spread, it is harmful not only because it is a sign of grave 
and widespread injustice, but also because when un- 
remedied, it leads to grave excesses. 

Q. 8. To what extent is social discontent beneficial? 

A. To the extent that it impels men to strive for genu- 
ine social betterment by reasonable and orderly methods. 
Indifference to grave social wrongs is spiritually and 
morally harmful. 

Q. 9. What should be the attitude of the laborer who 
believes that he is unjustly treated? 

A. The Pastoral Letter of the American Hierarchy 
says : "Whatever may be the industrial and social reme- 
dies which will approve themselves to the American 
people, there is one that, we feel confident, they will 
never adopt. That i^ the method of revolution. For it 



In the Relations of Production 47 

there is neither justification nor excuse under our form 
of government. Through the ordinary and orderly pro- 
cesses of education, organization and legislation, all 
social wrongs can be righted. While these processes 
may at times seem distressingly slow, they will achieve 
more in the final result than violence or revolution." 
The wage-earner has a right, and frequently is morally 
obliged to try to improve his conditions of labor and of 
living. The Church, says Pope Leo XIII, desires that 
"the pooi" should rise above poverty and wretchedness 
and better their condition in life." The same Pope 
points out that there are "bodily and external commod- 
ities, the use of which is necessary to virtuous action." 
Hence it is a calumny to assert that the Church has no 
more comforting message for the workers than that of 
patience and endurance. On the other hand, the op- 
pressed worker should bear in mind that he can make 
the hardships of his condition a means of moral disci- 
pline, spiritual progress and supernatural merit. After 
all, "a man's life doth not consist in the abundance of 
things which he possesseth." Nor does an "abundance 
of things" bring happiness. The man who is in humble 
circumstances can more easily find contentment than the 
man who is enslaved by a multitude of satisfied material 
wants. The workingman who, while striving by all 
legitimate means to better his condition, performs his 
present task honestly, lives a far more contented and 
more useful life than the man who sullenly shirks his 
work and bitterly bemoans the lack of an impossible 
heaven on earth. 

Readings. 

1. Wood, Housing of the Unskilled Wage-Earner (New York: 
The Macmillan Co.). 

2. Cuthbert, Catholic Ideals in Social Life (New York: Art 
and Book Co.). 




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CAPITAL AND LABOR. By Rev. John A. Ryan, 
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